About Face Organizing GI Opposition to Participation in ICE Terror: Right to Refuse!
The following are a couple of paragraphs extracted from “Soldiers Are Taking a Stand Against Trump’s Abuses” by Liza Featherstone originally appearing in The New Republc and quoted with permission here. GI resistance has been critical in opposing wars by the USA since the Vietnam war error, perhaps even before. Back in those days – GI Coffeehouses were a feature of organizing and GIs refusing to follow orders over in South East Asia – mutinied – fragged officers – and carried out other GI resistance that was critical in ending the US war in SouthEast Asia – imperialism lost the cooperation of its own troops. That can be repeated now – especially as the troops are thrown against our own people. Every comunity needs a plan to reach out to the GIs to oppose the ICE war of terror at home and the US wars abroad – in particular the genocide in Gaza. NJ should begin its support for such resistance now. – Editor
EXCERPT:
“Kim, an aircraft mechanic, joined the military in 2019, at age 18. She and her mother had struggled to survive, even living in their car at times. She didn’t think she could afford college, so she didn’t apply. Like so many young Americans in that situation, she enlisted “to get a stable paycheck, a roof over my head, food in my stomach at the end of the day.” Deployed only once, Kim spent most of her time on base, but she enjoyed the routine: waking up early for 15-hour workdays, staying up late to earn an associate’s degree, making lifelong friends and “amazing mentors.” But in 2024, she began to worry about what a new administration might ask the military to do.”
. . . .
“She’s speaking out as part of a campaign launched by About Face, a veterans’ group which today—July Fourth—is launching a “Right to Refuse” campaign arguing that service members deserve the right to refuse unlawful or immoral orders, in the hope that Congress will pass a law offering stronger protections to service members who do so. Founded by Iraq War veterans concerned about the immorality of that conflict, About Face has in recent years heard from service members with objections to sending weapons to Israel, dismantling DEI within the military, and especially, recently, the prospect of being pawns in Trump’s authoritarian fantasy, whether in the crackdown in Los Angeles or the military parade in Washington, D.C.”
Read the entire article at this link.
FigthBackBetter Editorial welcomes this development and calls upon the rank and file GIs to turn it around and defend the people against fascism!
